What’s Lacking in the “Reforming Intelligence and Securing America” Act

​The reform coalition on Capitol Hill remains determined to add strong amendments to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But will they get the chance before an April 19th deadline for FISA Section 702’s reauthorization?
 
There are several possible scenarios as this deadline closes. One of them might be a vote on the newly introduced “Reforming Intelligence and Securing America” (RISA) Act. This bill is a good-faith effort to represent the narrow band of changes that the pro-reform House Judiciary Committee and the status quo-minded House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence could agree upon.
 
But is it enough? RISA is deeply lacking because it leaves out two key reforms.
 

• It excludes the principal reform of the House Judiciary Committee’s Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act – leaving intact the ability of the FBI and other agencies to continue to use Section 702 data to perform baseless searches on Americans. These searches have been performed on Members of Congress, 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign, and tens of thousands of protestors on the left and right. Reformers want a warrant before agencies can collect Americans’ communications, as the Fourth Amendment requires.

 

• The bill does not close another loophole through which the FBI, IRS, Department of Homeland Security, and other federal agencies purchase and warrantlessly access the personal information of Americans. This data broker loophole gives the government access to Americans’ health, financial, romantic, religious, and political lives. If Congress cannot reform this practice with a warrant requirement, most other reforms will be meaningless.

 
The bill does include a role for amici curiae, specialists in civil liberties who would act as advisors to the secret FISA court. RISA, however, would limit the issues these advisors could address, well short of the intent of the Senate when it voted 77-19 in 2020 to approve the robust amici provisions of the Lee-Leahy amendment.
 
For all these reasons, reformers should see RISA as a floor, not as a ceiling, as the Section 702 showdown approaches. The best solution to the current impasse is to stop denying Members of Congress the opportunity for a straight up-or-down vote on reform amendments.